"Smash" was a personal favorite of NBC entertainment boss Bob Greenblatt - whose interest extended even to production design decisions, according to insiders - but never managed to connect with a wide audience. Greenblatt had started developing the show during his earlier post running Showtime.

The fate of "Smash" was all but sealed last month, when NBC announced it was moving the series to the dead zone of Saturday nights.

"The New Normal," co-created by Ryan Murphy of "Glee" fame, got attention for its premise of two gay men deciding to have a baby through a surrogate. But the pilot drew fewer than 7 million viewers and ratings amounted to less than half that as the season progressed, according to Nielsen.